We live in a world where we are bombarded with information constantly. The noise from our various information inputs (email inboxes, social media platforms, instant messages, etc.) is getting louder
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In today’s job market, a good resume simply isn’t good enough... it has to be great. A truly effective resume is more than just a pretty or well-constructed document... it’s a powerful marketing tool that allows you to stand out among your toughest competition, showcases your value to an employer in the most compelling way possible, and most importantly…makes your phone ring off the hook!

In this jam-packed session, you will learn the latest advanced resume strategies from one of North America’s top resume writers – someone who has and helped countless MBA graduates, industry leaders and executives across the U.S., Canada and internationally. Prepare to take notes – this is NOT your average resume session!

You Will Learn:

How to construct a Profile or Summary section that positions you for the role in a matter of seconds!

How to write powerful content that sells your value, not just your experience

How to handle tricky situations like changing careers/industries, managing gaps and making your resume attractive to Applicant Tracking Systems

The 2-Hour Job Search Part One: Prioritizing Target Employers

One of the biggest challenges of the job search is not knowing where to start. After this webinar, attendees will know how to:

Create a list of 40 target employers using four different methods

Collect three pieces of data that are easy to find and predictive of job search success

Determine a Top 5 for maximizing your chance of securing employment quickly

Most job seekers know that an internal referral is a necessary prerequisite to getting an interview (and avoiding the online job posting “black hole”), but few job seekers know the right person to contact to get that referral nor how to get in touch with him or her.

After this webinar, attendees will know how to:

Translate target employers to specific contacts that are easy to reach and likely to be helpful, despite being strangers currently

Use online tools – all free of charge – to efficiently find means of contacting these possible advocates

Note: This session is the natural follow-on to the 2/19 webinar on "The 2-Hour Job Search: Prioritizing Target Employers."

Killer LinkedIn Profile: The Enhancements that Open Doors

Your presence on LinkedIn is one of your most powerful career assets—a central component to your branding as you prepare yourself to land your ideal position.

Just being on LinkedIn is not enough. To get attention and results from this essential social media platform, you need to optimize your profile and become an advanced user.

In this presentation, you will gain skills and knowledge that will build your power on LinkedIn:

Discover must-know tricks to make every word in your profile count.

Learn what to do–and what not to do–to maximize your visibility and impact.

Get strategies for distinguishing yourself and your unique assets.

See examples of top-notch LinkedIn profiles that you can use as models as you craft yours.

You can’t afford to have a mediocre LinkedIn profile. Find out now how to make it great—and start opening doors.

How to Use Social Media to Find and Land a Job Faster

You're busy, and a little overwhelmed by all of the options to market yourself professionally via social media. Maybe you're not convinced networks such as Twitter, Facebook and Google+ are useful to someone with an MBA. Studies show increasing numbers of employers tap these online tools to identify, screen and hire candidates. Hiring managers report they attract better quality applicants and increase their reach when they use social media, and many intend to increase their investment in and efforts using these recruitment tools. Don't miss the opportunity to feature your expertise and skills via social networks to attract career opportunities.

You will:

Learn how to choose and use the best social networks to enhance your professional reputation.

Get strategies to efficiently mine your MBA coursework and other resources to create magnetic, informative content to share so everyone knows you have your finger on the pulse of your field.

Know what to say and how to say it via social media to attract a following in your target audience.

Uncover methods, tips and tricks to help accomplish all of this effectively and efficiently; no one has time to waste.

Tell Your Story to Stand Out and Connect with Employers

To stand out from the crowd, MBA job-seekers can turn to a technique almost as old as human history —storytelling. Most job-seekers know they can use stories to respond to interview questions, but they don’t realize they can also apply stories in resumes, cover letters, portfolios, and in networking to make themselves memorable and create vivid pictures of their skills and accomplishments. Consider that many MBA grads vying for the same position you seek probably have qualifications that are similar to yours. But will they be describing those qualifications to employers in evocative story form? Probably not. If you do, you’ll distinguish yourself from those who seek to sell themselves to employers in less engaging ways. This webinar will provide an overview of how to use stories to stand out.

How the same story can be adapted across various forms of career communication – resumes, cover letters, interviews.

How to develop effective job-search stories based on successes and accomplishments.

The value of stories in networking, career branding, and career portfolios.

Using Twitter: Add Real-Time Networking to Your Job-Search Campaign

Professionals in all industries at all levels use Twitter to grow their network, exchange ideas, and promote their businesses. You should too. While Twitter may not have as many active users as Facebook or LinkedIn, you will find most Twitter users are open networkers. Fishing is this smaller, less competitive pond makes it easier to hook company insiders and industry contacts.

During this fast-paced session we’ll build off the ideas presented in How to Use Social Media to Get Found and Land A Job Faster by focusing on Twitter-specific resources and strategies to find and engage with industry professionals. We’ll dive into how you can garner the attention of complete strangers, pick up valuable company insider information, and build reciprocal relationships in real-time.

You will learn:

How to find and follow valuable company insiders using Twitter search tools.

What to say in 140 characters to catch the attention of strategically targeted users.

Learn what types of tweets generate more attention and increase followers.

How to organize your Twitter feed so you don’t miss important news and updates.

The Hidden Job Market: Creating Opportunities Out of Thin Air

Conventional wisdom says that 80% of available positions are filled before they are ever advertised. We can understand why it’s true for a few main reasons. First, there are always roles that have not been fully defined, and until that definition is given, there are unrequisitioned functional holes just waiting to be filled. Second, the process and timelag of even a defined position passing through the requisition process of a major corporation can be ominous. Third, people would rather work with people they know and like vs. starting a brand new relationship, so they effectively “hire” faster (in their mind, if not officially) than the HR machine can work anyhow.

So, if there’s all these available yet invisible opportunities out there, how do you best tap into them?

In this jam-packed session, you will learn how to do just that, from a networking expert and author who has taught these techniques to MBAs and senior executives for over 14years…landing many in roles the world didn’t even know existed.

You Will Learn:

Why the logic and human psychology elements behind the evolution and closing of a hire are critical to know

The virtual license-to-steal all students possess to infiltrate these backdoor boardrooms of opportunities

How to repurpose your academic research for stealth job search

Contact and ongoing engagement methods to keep you privy to what’s hidden to others

Salary Negotiations: Don’t Leave Money on the Table

To not negotiate is to leave part of your compensation package with the employer. Not only is “pushing back” essential, but it sets the right tone for all future discussions of compensation during your tenure with an organization. This webinar will present a salary negotiation primer for both job seekers and professionals seeking to negotiate within their current business environments.

A three step approach will be detailed:

How to avoid the subject for as long as possible, building value;

How to defer at the point of offer, in order to gain time to build a negotiating strategy; and

The face-to-face negotiation - surprisingly the easiest part of the process.

Ross Macpherson

Ross Macpherson is the President of Career Quest, an executive resume writing and career marketing business, and a recognized expert in advanced career strategies – the strategies that have consistently put his clients miles ahead of their competition. Macpherson is a Certified Personal Branding Strategist, Certified Interview and Job Search Coach, and is recognized as one of the best resume writers in North America. Ross has 15 years experience in career development and specializes in the senior and executive market with clients throughout the U.S. and Canada and overseas.

Katharine Hansen, Ph.D

Katharine (Kathy) Hansen, Ph.D., creative director and associate publisher of Quintessential Careers, is an online educator, author, and blogger who provides content for Quintessential Careers, edits its newsletter QuintZine, and blogs about storytelling at A Storied Career. Kathy, who earned her PhD from Union Institute & University authored You Are More Accomplished Than You Think,Tell Me About Yourself, Dynamic Cover Letters for New Graduates, A Foot in the Door, Top Notch Executive Interviews,Top Notch Executive Resumes; and with Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D., Dynamic Cover Letters, Write Your Way to a Higher GPA, and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Study Skills.

Miriam Salpeter

Miriam Salpeter, M.A., founder of Keppie Careers, is a well known and influential job search and social media subject matter expert. CNN called her a "top 10 job tweeter you should be following" and Mashable listed her as a "top 5 career influencer.” Quoted in a variety of publications, including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, Miriam’s writing regularly appears in outlets such as Business Insider and U.S. News & World Report. Forbes named Miriam’s blog a "best career resource." Author of Social Networking for Career Success (in its second edition) and co-author of 100 Conversations for Career Success and Social Networking for Business Success, Miriam is a preferred career coach partner for the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan and a highly-regarded keynote speaker, trainer and coach for job seekers, business owners and organizations.

Darrell Gurney

Darrell Gurney is a 25+-year recruiter and career advisor who coaches professionals at all levels to make profitable career transitions or to create thriving businesses. Conferring with a career-coaching firm right out of business school, Darrell used a “backdoor” job search method to meet with seven CFOs of the top Hollywood entertainment studios, landing an international financial position with MGM/United Artists Pictures.

Darrell has since taken his knowledge of effective networking and developed a way to share it with others. Darrell is also the author of Never Apply for a Job Again: Break the Rules, Cut the Line, Beat the Rest.

Steve Dalton

Steve Dalton is Senior Associate Director of the Career Management Center at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and author of The 2-Hour Job Search: Using Technology to Get the Right Job FASTER. He earned his own MBA at Fuqua, as well as a chemical engineering undergraduate degree from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Prior to entering the career services industry, Steve was an associate marketing manager at General Mills and a strategy consultant at A.T. Kearney.

Brenda Bernstein

Brenda Bernstein is the #1 best-selling author of How to Write a KILLER LinkedIn Profile—a book that has been featured in Forbes and Fortune Magazines and that has outpaced sales of books by the Harvard Business Review. An admissions consultant as well as a Certified Master Resume Writer and Certified Executive Resume Writer, Brenda holds a B.A. in English from Yale University and a J.D. from the NYU School of Law. Her team at The Essay Expert LLC works personally with hundreds of MBA applicants and businesspeople to bring their academic and professional careers to the next level.

Ellis Chase

Ellis has had a diversified, extensive experience in career and executive coaching, management consulting, and training in corporations, consulting companies, private practice, and colleges and universities. His corporate clients have included Deloitte, General Electric, Estee Lauder, Goldman Sachs, The Gartner Group, Purdue Pharma, Swiss Re America, ING Capital, Penguin Putnam, American Civil Liberties Union, Hess Corporation, and Citigroup. His employment history includes several years as Managing Director at Right Management Consultants and Systems Staffing Officer with the Chase Manhattan Bank. Ellis was an instructor with the Center for Career, Education, and Life Planning at New York University from 1987-2006, and, since 2001, has been a retained consultant to Columbia Business School in Alumni Relations, Career Management, and the Program for Social Intelligence. He has appeared on CNN, CNBC, and several radio programs, and has been a regular contributor to career websites and newspapers. He is a founding member of the New York Chapter of the Association of Career Management Professionals International

Hannah Morgan

Hannah Morgan is a speaker and author on job search and social media strategies. She delivers fresh advice and serves as a guide to the treacherous terrain of today’s workplace landscape. Hannah’s experience in Human Resources, Outplacement Services, Workforce Development and Career Services equip her with a 360-degree-perspective on job search topics. Recognized by media and career professionals, Hannah is an advocate who encourages job seekers to take control of their job search. Hannah is frequently quoted in local and national publications and she writes a weekly column for U.S. News & World Report. Hannah is the author of The Infographic Resume (McGraw Hill Education, 2014) and co-author of Social Networking for Business Success (Learning Express, 2013). You can learn more about Hannah on CareerSherpa.net and by following her on Twitter at @careersherpa.

Jaymin Patel

Jaymin J. Patel is a coach, speaker, and author of 7 books including The MBA Guide to Networking Like a Rockstar and Confessions of an MBA Interviewer. Jaymin received his MBA from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University and leveraged his Rockstar networking and interview techniques to land a position at a top management consulting firm at the age of 24. He has been “on the other side of the table” working as a recruiter/interviewer in charge of assessing and hiring MBA and industry candidates into his firm for ~4 years. Jaymin is a popular MBA speaker, having delivered well over 100 presentations and webinars, reaching tens of thousands of MBAs and industry professionals around the globe with his Rockstar Approach. He is also a career coach providing services to a variety of universities and colleges throughout North America.

Interview Like a Rockstar: Strategies to Prepare and Perform

The Interview can be an intense “sweat interview” or a pleasant conversation that leads to a job offer – it’s your choice if you prepare and perform well. You can “own the tone” of the interview from the beginning by knowing what interviewers are really looking for before you walk into the room.

After this webinar, you will:

Know how to prepare for 4 key dimensions that MBA interviewers are really assessing in the process.

Know the 3 most common (& important!) questions interviewers ask, and how to answer them.

Understand the decision process and mindset employers use to forward candidates between 1st round interviews, 2nd round interviews, and final offer rounds… and how each round differs.

And most importantly… Understand what NOT to do, what to do, and when.

Why “Will They Sponsor?” is Not (Initially) the Right Question

You’ve heard it before: “Sorry we don’t sponsor work visas.” It’s the phrase that has abruptly ended thousands of recruitment conversations over the years. But why is it that some companies that have a policy not to hire international students sometimes hire them nonetheless? Your visa sponsorship is a cost that your future employer must bear if they want to hire you. But you’re worth it! How can international MBAs justify this cost and increase their chances of getting hired?
Dan Beaudry, author of Power Ties: The International Student's Guide to Finding a Job in the United States and speaker at business schools around the U.S., kicks off the 12-webinar series with a behind the scenes look into the world of international student hiring. Learn how thinking like a sales person can get you hired, and sponsored, in the U.S.

You will learn:

Why you should never begin a conversation with a company by asking “Do you sponsor?”

How to create interest in your value as an employee (instead of being screened out at the beginning)

How to avoid making some common mistakes international students make in their job-search.

Creating Your Target Employer List

The 2-Hour Job Search is an effective methodology for both American and international MBA students alike to optimize their job search efforts. But for international students, there are special factors to consider when creating a target employer list at the very start of your job search. Considering these important factors will help you create your best prospect list and ultimately lead to more job interviews.

You will learn:

Which kinds of employers tend to sponsor visas (it's not necessarily who you think),

How to find which employers sponsored visas last year

The game theory behind targeting less-obvious employers to maximize your chance of US employment.

The Power ofthe Informational Interview

An informational interview is a meeting in which a job seeker asks for first-hand career, industry or company information and advice rather than ask about job leads or job openings. Scheduling and holding in-person informational interviews should be at or near the top of any international student’s to-do list because you gain first-hand information about the company that will help you on a job interview ; you expand your network to include professionals who can refer you for a job interview; and you practice your interviewing skills, including the opportunity to explain the value you can offer. In this presentation, Steven Steinfeld, author of the highly rated and widely recommended book 3 Steps to Your Job in the USA - International Student Edition, will give you insights on how to use the informational interview at different stages of your job search and how to prepare for and conduct the actual meeting.

You will learn:

How to target and request meetings with the best contacts

Specific questions to ask during an informational interview

Common informational interview mistakes to avoid

How an informational interview can lead directly or indirectly to a great job

Lead Through Strengths To Reap Higher Performance and Greater Enjoyment at Work

Have you ever wondered why some days at work feel productive and energizing, while others just suck the life out of you? A key technique for boosting your career satisfaction and productivity is to discover your natural talents and put them to work. In fact, people who invest in their strengths are 6x more engaged at work and report 3x better quality of life (source: Gallup).

Watch this presentation and learn to use your talents to become more of who you already are, while improving performance at work. This can all happen when you activate one simple mantra at work: using your strengths every day makes you stronger, and using your weaknesses makes you weaker.

You will learn to:

Discover where you're applying wasted energy toward weaknesses; learn when to temper and when to sharpen your talents.

Use strengths to explore your personal brand and whether your intentions show through your actions.

Look at the past, present, and future to identify your fuels and drains. Avoid "not it" career plans by getting clear on work that feels enjoyable and energizing.

Use Job Crafting exercises to tweak work tasks and customize interactions with your colleagues.

Leverage Boss Shopping techniques to improve your most important relationship at work.

Writing Effective and Efficient Email

Email can easily cause misunderstandings, leading to compromised business relationships and lost job opportunities, especially when crossing international and organizational cultures. This webinar focuses on crafting emails that get to the point while respecting your readers to ensure you make the best possible impression through your writing and achieve the results you want. Issues of linguistic etiquette receive close attention during this hour.

You will learn to:

Master the unique challenges of email.

Compose purposeful, reader-focused emails.

Employ strategies for creating a courteous tone.

Use culturally appropriate expressions as the situation dictates.

Building Your Brand with Social Media

Learn a roadmap for building a powerful online presence – taking advantage of all the social media tools available, including LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blogs and other social media to grow your brand and increase the value you deliver to your employer.

Today, if you don’t show up in a Google search, you don’t exist. Building your personal brand on the Web is not only important to finding a job once you receive your MBA, it’s critical to being able to do your job, lead your team and support your company. In this presentation, William explains the social branding phenomenon and provides the roadmap for building a powerful online presence – taking advantage of all the social media tools available. Having a virtual brand that reinforces and extends your real-world brand helps you do your job better.

You will learn:

How to use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blogs and other social media to grow your brand and increase the value you deliver to your employer

Secrets for the easiest and most effective ways to build your brand in bits and bytes

Preparing for an interview is overwhelming for international students. You probably have one or more of these common fears:

How can I fully express myself in English?

Where do I start? How do I introduce myself?

It’s impossible to remember everything on my resume. What if I forget a point?

How detailed should my answer be?

I don’t have any U.S. work experience. What are my employment strengths relative to others?

What if I am asked a question not on my resume?

What kind of questions should I ask the interviewer?

I am so nervous. How can I relax?

To prepare, relax and perform in any job interview, you will learn four practical techniques to be engaging and endearing, even if your English is not perfect.

You will learn:

How to give a short and powerful summary of who you are

How to explain a project to communicate your value, without too much detail

How to build an inventory of stories for potential questions

How to successfully engage in a phone interview

Nell Hall

Nell leads University Relations and Recruiting at Pitney Bowes.

She is responsible to:

Interview and source for the best talent coming out of campus

Plan and execute programing and developmental opportunities for interns

Work with Diversity and Inclusion to facilitate diversity initiatives at the campus level

Strategize with HR on workforce planning initiatives

Utilize Taleo, Avature and OrgPlus to manage data

Partner with our Employer Branding department to ensure our story is told at the campus level

Create collateral with campus data for internal stakeholders

Pre-screen every applicant coming out of campus to ensure fit

Partner with Universities on mutually beneficial initiatives, such as recruiting and research projects

Lisa Cummings

Lisa Cummings is the CEO of Pinch Yourself Careers, a firm that helps amplify what's right about people to find their team mojo. With 20 years of experience and an MBA, the most persistent trend she has seen is a lopsided focus on hard skills in the workplace. She has helped over 9,000 participants in 14 countries to boost their performance at work. She'll help you invest in your natural talents so that how you get things done boosts your career as much as what you get done.

Dhruv Marwaha

Dhruv earned a MBA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Class of 2012) with a concentration in Strategy and Finance and currently works as an Associate Project Manager for EXL Services Ltd. Dhruv is a seasoned professional with more than 6 years of experience. He has an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering. His work experience is diverse and spread across different industries and roles, from a Business Development Engineer in an Automobile Firm to a Consultant with a Human Resource Consulting Firm and a Professional Services Firm (Big 4). This wide range of experience helps him bring new perspectives to the table.

Mauricio Lopez

Mauricio has over 10 years of strong HR generalist and specialist background and global, regional, and cross sector work experience. He is currently the International Recruitment & Development (IRDP) Manager at JOHNSON & JOHNSON Corporate, leading a 3-person team to manage the International MBA Leadership Development Program. The team hires and develops talent for all sectors, functions and regions outside the U.S., managing internship, and full – time positions for over 120 new hires per year.

Cynthia Bush

Cynthia joined Houlihan Lokey as Global Head of Recruiting to head up the HL's recruiting, training and mentoring efforts. She is responsible for coordinating the on-campus and lateral recruiting, training as well as other related activities. Prior to joining Houlihan Lokey, she worked as Senior Associate Director at The Wharton School's MBA Career Management office. Prior to that, she was with JP Morgan where she specialized in Structured Products, credit and insurance derivative products and Mergers and Acquisitions. While at JP Morgan, Cynthia also managed the firm's Market Analyst and Associate Program and managed the Markets and Securitization Training Programs.

Terry Unger

Senior Associate of ICF International. Licensed attorney with experience in environmental, international, and administrative law. Specialization at ICF International includes the development, interpretation, and utilization of regulations as well as legal research and writing. Also serves as technical liaison for all Eastern U.S. college recruitment activities for environmental, energy, and transportation positions.

Qiaoli (Echo) Gao

Qiaoli (Echo) Gao is a MBA graduate (class 2013) from Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. She currently works as a Business Development Manager for Infosys, a multinational IT and consulting company. Prior to her MBA study, Echo worked in China as a Sales Manager for a manufacturing company for five and a half years. She also holds a Bachelor's of Arts degree in International Business from Hunan University, China. At present, Echo and her husband reside in Dallas, TX, and they both love travelling in their spare time.

Phil Vassallo

Philip has developed, delivered, and supervised communication training programs for a wide range of managerial, administrative, and technical professionals in corporate, government, and academic environments. He has also taught writing and presentation skills on the graduate and undergraduate university levels, most recently for the Beijing International MBA program at Peking University. He has provided writing coaching and assessment services for thousands of corporate employees. Dr. Vassallo is the author of the popular blog Words on the Line and the books How to Write Fast Under Pressure, on writing efficiently; The Art of On-the-Job Writing, on work-related writing;The Art of E-Mail Writing, on business email. He holds a doctorate in educational theory from Rutgers University and is a past- president of the New Jersey College English Association.

Susan Whitcomb

Susan Whitcomb is founder and president of The Academies, including Career Coach Academy, Job Search Academy & Leadership Coach Academy. With more than two decades of experience as an author and speaker, Susan motivates her audiences to tap into the awareness, attitudes, and action plans that cause a life-changing shift from stagnant or stuck to unstoppable. Susan is co-author of The Twitter Job Search Guide and author of Job Search Magic, Interview Magic, and Resume Magic. Her book, 30-Day Job Promotion: Build a Powerful Promotion Plan in a Month, is part of JIST’s popular Help-in-a-Hurry series. Susan has been a careers columnist and featured chat guest for numerous media outlets.

Nancy Hawkes

Nancy has devoted herself to coming up with innovative approaches which enable Internationals to quickly adapt to North American culture and feel confident in challenging social situations. She is the co-author of Soft Skills for Hard Situations and co-creator of the American Business Communication curriculum. She has helped thousands of international students thrive in U.S. business culture.

Nancy owned a graphic design firm for 18 years and holds a BA in Education and a MA in Teaching English as a Second Language, both from Arizona State University.

Steve Dalton

Steve Dalton is Senior Associate Director of the Career Management Center at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and author of The 2-Hour Job Search: Using Technology to Get the Right Job FASTER. He earned his own MBA at Fuqua, as well as a chemical engineering undergraduate degree from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Prior to entering the career services industry, Steve was an associate marketing manager at General Mills and a strategy consultant at A.T. Kearney.

Deirdre Mendez Ph.D.

Dr. Deirdre Mendez is the Director of the Center for International Business and Education Research (CIBER) in the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. In this role, she oversees the development and implementation of programs designed to enhance the competitiveness of U.S. business through the internationalization of business education. She holds a PhD in linguistics, and worked as a consultant to U.S. corporations developing international strategies for 20 years before coming to UT-Austin. Since returning to academia, she has been a leader in CIBER’s work to develop resources that strengthen students’ and executives’ adaptability to the international context.

Dr. Mendez teaches intercultural management and teambuilding to undergraduates, MBA students and executives. She has developed an academic framework and training system to facilitate intercultural adaptability and problem solving. The Executive Tool Kit is currently used at The University of Texas and other universities to teach international management and leadership courses, help students and businesspeople adapt to new cultural environments during study abroad, international internships, and service learning programs, and facilitate integration of culturally diverse teams of executives.

Susan Masson, M.Ed.

Susan Masson is the Senior Associate Director of MBA Career Management at the McCombs School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin. Before coming to McCombs, she honed her advising skills in a variety of roles including Assistant Director of International Studies at Villanova University and Director of International Programs at Presbyterian College.

Susan began working with the Texas MBA Program in 2006 as an Academic Advisor and Exchange Coordinator and moved on to run short term study tours in 2008 as part of the MBA+ team. Nearly 700 Texas MBAs explored new destinations under her guidance. Susan began working in career advising in 2011 with a focus on the recruiting needs of international students and now manages the full-time career management team.

Lilly Zhu

Lilly is the CEO of Savvy Rookies, leading a team of top-notch career and industry experts in the U.S. to provide the best job search and career skills training and resources for international students to compete in the global job market. As a former investment banker at Morgan Stanley in NYC and a consultant in Boston, Lilly has recruited, trained, and mentored hundreds of graduate and undergraduate students from top schools who aim to pursue highly competitive career tracks globally. Lilly has also worked closely with senior diversity officers to recruit talent at leading companies on and off Wall Street such as Goldman Sachs, Citi, Credit Suisse, JP Morgan, Federal Reserve Bank of NY, Moody’s, Capital One, American Express, Vanguard, and ExxonMobil. Previously an international student and having lived in the U.S. for the past 17 years, Lilly is passionate about accelerating the career success of international students. A decade before founding SavvyRookies, Lilly was one of the co-founders of Career Counseling for Chinese (CCC), the first US-based non-profit organization dedicated to providing career workshops to 500+ international students and young professionals in the greater Boston area. Lilly holds an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management, an MA in Economics from the University of Washington, and a BA in Finance from Tsinghua University in China.

Mark is a Director of the Immigration Practice Group of the law firm of McCandlish Holton, PC. Mark regularly provides immigration advice and visa processing services to US employers as well as university career services offices from coast-to-coast. He has extensive expertise in all temporary work visa categories and permanent resident categories. Mark is listed in Best Lawyers in America in Immigration Law, and is a member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Steven Steinfeld

Steven uses his UNIQUE 3-STEP JOB SEARCH COACHING APPROACH to help international business school students, recent grads, executives and professionals to identify and land meaningful careers and jobs through his books, seminars, workshops, and job search and career coaching practices. Steven's job search and career workshops are sponsored by over a dozen colleges and universities. In 2014, he continues as career and job search coach to the MBA programs at Northern Illinois University and the primary career coach at InternshipDesk. Steven is the author of the #1 job search book for international students, 3 STEPS TO YOUR JOB IN THE USA. Prior to career coaching, Steven's career included management at IBM and U.S. subsidiaries of Indian, Chinese, and French global technology companies. Steven holds a degree in Psychology from CUNY and a Certificate in Marketing Management from Wharton. He is on the the Advisory Boards of The Careers College, InternshipDesk, and Consult Global.

Marcelo Barros

Marcelo is the International Student MBA career coach at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. While earning his MBA in Finance at the University of Oregon as an international student, Marcelo worked in career services helping address the job search needs of students with F1 and J1 visas. After earning his MBA, Marcelo worked for companies such as Avaya, Cisco and Shoretel as an account manager and a project manager. Throughout his 20-year stay in the United States, Marcelo has mentored and professionally coached many MBAs who have secured quality jobs in the US.

Dan Beaudry

Dan is the author of the book Power Ties: The International Student’s Guide to Finding a Job in the United States. He was the Campus Recruiting Manager for Monster.com where he constructed and managed the company’s first formal university recruiting program, including the growth and management of Monster’s MBA Executive Development and Leadership program. Prior to joining Monster, Dan was the Associate Director of Corporate Recruiting for the Boston University School of Management where he developed the international student employment series. Dan began his career in management consulting, and also spent time as a headhunter during the dot.com boom and bust. He now works in business development for two international organizations, providing career content and international relations software to the higher education industry.

Create Your Action Plan

As an international student, your success is not a function of how many resumes you send but rather how much time and effort you spend understanding the needs of a potential employer and tailoring your experience to demonstrate your potential so you can secure your H1-B job. You have to be worth the effort. FIT is key. As an international student you have no time to waste. Sound strategy is needed. Consistent execution is key as well. You are VERY busy an as MBA candidate, so in the last session of our webinar series you will learn:

You will learn:

Hot areas that international MBA candidates may want to focus on

Examples of great jobs that are suitable for international MBA students and increase your chances of obtaining sponsorship

How to think of your skill set in a strategic way so you can increase your chances of creating more interviews

What U.S. Employers Really Want: Shifting the Paradigm, Landing the Job

You’ve sacrificed, sweated, and stretched to get your MBA from an American school ... with the expectation that a career opportunity will materialize as a result of it all. What might stall your search, derail your plans, or even send you back home empty-handed? The quiet truth about what employers really want! They don’t just hire for grades or resume accolades or school reputation.

You will learn:

Why good grades and school reputation aren’t enough to land an offer.

The differences between job search in your home country vs the United States.

Practical “head-heart-and-hands” tools you can use to increase an employer’s desire to hire!

Dorie Clark

Dorie Clark is an Adjunct Professor of Business Administration at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the author of Reinventing You(Harvard Business Review Press, 2013) and Stand Out(Portfolio/Penguin, 2016). A former presidential campaign spokeswoman, she is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, TIME, and Entrepreneur. Recognized as a “branding expert” by the Associated Press, Inc., and Fortune, Clark is a marketing strategy consultant and speaker for clients including Google, Microsoft, Yale University, Fidelity, and the World Bank. You can follow her on Twitter @dorieclark and download her free 42-page Stand Out Self-Assessment Workbook.

Jason Aldrich

20 years of experience assuming increasing levels of responsibility in career services at highly competitive institutions including Vanderbilt University, The University of Georgia and in my current role the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University.

Building world-class career centers with the capacity to effectively connect students, alumni and employers be developing staff, creating innovative programs, employer and alumni relations, leveraging technology, fundraising and internal collaboration.

Consulting with organizations establishing university relations and recruiting programs including Internship programs.

Career coaching for individuals seeking career advancement at all levels. Key areas include career assessment, career exploration, job search strategy, interview preparation, job offer negotiation, on-the-job career management, and mid-late career changes.
Experience

Tim Clark

Tim Clark is a teacher, entrepreneur, NEXT-certified entrepreneurship trainer, and author who leads the global personal business model movement at BusinessModelYou.com. After selling his startup to a NASDAQ listed entity in a multi-million-dollar transaction, he completed doctoral research in international business model portability and went on to author or edit five books on entrepreneurship, business models, and personal development, including the international bestsellers Business Model You and Business Model Generation, which together have sold more than a million copies in 30 languages. See BusinessModelYou.com.

Jim Wylde

Jim Wylde is an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) and facilitator with a passion for empowering groups and individuals to develop collaborative solutions, particularly in the context of sustainable development. He recently co-authored the book Strategic Connections: The New Face of Networking in a Collaborative World (Amacom 2016). With 25+ years of experience in global career and leadership development, networking and diversity, he strives to build community in every setting.

To maximize results, Jim works in multiple training modalities ranging from team-building to strategic planning to career coaching, from Open Space to World Cafe. Recent clients include the World Bank Group (WBG), Health and Human Services (HHS), World Learning, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Time Warner Cable and the Smithsonian Institution.

As a faculty member at George Mason University’s School of Management, Jim taught the course “Managing in a Global Economy.” His background includes 16 years with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the main source of multilateral financing and expertise for sustainable economic, social and institutional development in Latin America and the Caribbean.

But his first love has always been to use storytelling as a communications vehicle. He’s produced an audio book about the American Revolution, written a job-skills book as a novel, and is the creator of TheStoryHow™ PitchDeck, a deck of playing cards that helps business people convert their ideas, messages, and presentations into memorable narratives.

He’s @ronploof on Twitter, blogs at storyhow.com, and if you ever meet him in person, make sure to ask him about “The Bionic Girl.”

William Arruda

William is the Founder of Reach Personal Branding, the #1 provider of personal branding services to Fortune 500 companies and leading universities. He also serves as Chief Content Officer for Beyond B-School. William is a regular presenter at top tier graduate schools of business, including Harvard, Duke, NYU, Berkeley, Wharton, University of Michigan, UCLA and Cornell, and he lectures and consults for executives at top corporations, such as Johnson and Johnson, Price Waterhouse, Sheraton, Microsoft, Disney, Ogilvy and J.P. Morgan. William is the co-author of Ditch, Dare, Do : Stand Out By Building Your Brand, a guidebook with the tools managers need to differentiate themselves from their peers and thrive in today’s job market.

Reinventing You:Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future

You want to make a change in your professional life, whether it’s shifting jobs, functional roles, or industries. But just because reinvention is common, that doesn't mean it's easy. You have learnednew skills and made new contacts in your MBA program, but that’s only one piece of the puzzle. Now it’s time to seize control of your professional narrative, strategically reintroduce yourself to past colleagues, and demonstrate unquestionable expertise in the new area you’re moving into so you can win that job or promotion.

In this presentation drawing on her book Reinventing You (Harvard Business Review Press), Dorie Clark provides a step-by-step framework to help you assess your unique strengths, and sharpen your message and personal brand. The session will help you think big about your professional goals, take control of your narrative, and build a reputation that opens doors for you.

You’ll learn concrete strategies to become a stronger leader through professional reinvention, including:

Discovering how you’re currently perceived

Identifying the essence of your brand and communicating that to others (in a way that’s not overly self-promotional)

Leveraging your unique strengths

Powerfully demonstrating the contribution only you can make

How to Use Assessment Data to Chart an Exciting New Professional Direction

Most B-schools provide students with a variety of individual assessments. Many offer career assessments including CareerLeader, MBTI and Strengths finder, some also offer 360 degree assessments and feedback along with individual coaching. These tools are designed to clarify your interests, motivations and skills to help you develop your career strategy.

This session will provide you with a framework to incorporate the feedback from assessments into a pro-active career strategy to help you make the most of your B-School experience. In this session.

You will learn how to:

Interpret career assessments to help you identify viable career options

Leverage career, adult and leadership development assessments to develop a more holistic understanding of your ideal career path.

Engage in meaningful exercises designed to facilitate career change.

The Anatomy of Transformation: From Roadblocks to Success

It has been said that "success leaves clues.” If you have succeeded in the past, there is a set of organizing principles that allowed you to achieve that success. Would you agree that if you were to follow the clues to discover the organizing principles or the "anatomy" of your success, you can create successful results again and again?

Transformation Expert Willard Barth will take you through the seven phases of Transformation. He will show you how each phase impacts and directly leads to the next, and that by understanding these phases you will be able to put this proven system to work for you as you take control of the direction of your professional life.

You will learn...

The 7 phases of transformation

How to identify what phase you are currently in and what is preventing you from moving to the next phase

The 2 obstacles that will prevent you from achieving the results you desire

How to use your awareness of those obstacles to transform them into resources rather than roadblocks

Career Rock Climbing – A Framework to Assess Risks and Choices

The great recession revealed fundamental shifts in how organizations operate and evolve – shifts that have fundamentally changed how individuals must navigate their careers. The traditional career ladder was transformed into a far more precarious climb up a rock wall rife with tenuous footholds, unexpected twists and disappointing lateral moves.

This new environment of often tentative footing that today’s MBA career rock climbers experience as they navigate lacks clear career moves, but clearly holds more risk and an increased number of choices. As a result, the way individuals play the career game must change.

In this session, you will learn how to:

Re-conceptualize today’s environment as it relates to your career goals

Assess career risks and consider pro-active changes necessary to make career changes.

Take ownership of your professional development across multiple career moves

Craft and execute your career strategy

Know Your Options! A Strategy for Change

Whether you feel stuck and don’t know where you want to go or you have change of direction already clarified, do you know what your options are as a Career Changer? This session will suggest ways to identify your career options to follow a four-step process to focus on what you CAN control. We'll discuss the confidential job search, the importance of powerful connections and the secret step that no one wants to discuss but MUST be addressed. Since 80% of jobs are still obtained via networking, we'll help you be prepared for any change that comes your way.

You will learn:

a 4-Step Process for Career Change

to research options (where to go and who to see)

the importance of 'bridging the gap' for their next employer

to make one move at a time for long term success

tactics to make your job search confidential

How to Redesign Your Career Using Personal Business Modeling™

The presentation is in four parts:

1. The Personal Business Model Canvas
The Personal Business Model Canvas is the same tool, slightly modified for use by individuals. Just as all organizations have business models, we as individuals have personal business models: logic by which we create and deliver value to customers.

2. How to Create a Personal Business Model
This video walks you step-by-step through the process of creating a Personal Business Model.

3. How to Redesign Your Personal Business Model
This video walks you step-by-step through the process of redesigning your Personal Business Model — the first step in redesigning your career!

4. How to Get Out Of the Building with Your New Personal Business Model
Here’s a clear, simple step you can take to start testing your new Personal Business Model.

Manage Your Career with the Network-Oriented Workplace (NOW)

Networking is a professional competency needed by almost everyone, at almost every level, in almost every kind of workplace. It is essential as you navigate your relationships in your current organization, and as you build the internal and external relationships which will help you to create your ideal career.

Research indicates that only 20 percent of employees are networking at their potential. If you’re part of the other 80 percent, you may have beliefs that hold you back or need some very specific relationship-building skills.

You will learn:

What’s happening in organizations today, and how to benefit from new trends.

Tools and strategies you can use to gain visibility and influence.

How to establish your New Networker Identity.

The power of strategic networking in moving your career forward.

* Specific steps you can take to move into the workplace of the future.

Powerful Resume Strategies for Career Changing MBAs

Creating an effective resume for a career changer poses a distinct challenge: how do you create an resume that gets you considered for a new direction even if you have never done the work before, have an Experience section that looks completely irrelevant to the desired position or direction, and you are competing against candidates who are already doing that work?

In this presentation, MBA branding guru and Beyond B-School’s resident resume expert Ross Macpherson will show you the best strategies he uses for clients who are changing careers as one of the top resume writers in the business. You will be able to use these techniques when writing your own resume that gets you considered for a position not directly related to your past work experience.

You will learn:

How to use a strategic, not a structural approach

How to construct a dynamic Profile that showcases your specific suitability for a career change or a job that is not a logical move

Why you should never use a functional or skills resume!

How to populate the resume with the right accomplishments that make sense to a new audience

Finding and Telling Your Career Change Backstory

Career changers have distinct advantages and perceived disadvantages compared with their competition. This presentation will give you tools to clarify he advantages and mitigate the perceived disadvantages through the power of story.

In this presentation, Business Storyteller, Ron Ploof shows you how to use his StoryHow™ method to help you find, develop and tell your story so that interviewers remember you over your competition.

You will learn:

Audience: Putting yourself in the interviewer's shoes

Purpose and Ending: What are you trying to achieve and how will it end?

Protagonist and Initial Impulse: Explaining what this job means to you and why it is so important

Meaning and the Big Idea: Simple, three-word sentence that describes what you are and why the interviewer needs to hire you.

Emotion and Risk: Even perfect candidates are risky to hire. Understanding and addressing those perceived risks helps interviewers recommend you.

Holding Interest: How to keep your stories out of "the boring zone."

Putting it all together: Assembling your story to be told during the interview.

Your Brand Evolution Plan: Remain Uniquely Relevant and Valuable

To launch your career change strategy, you need to assess your current branding and take action to re-brand regularly so you can achieve your goals and increase your happiness at work. You must learn how to develop brand aspirations and commit to action that evolves your brand from where it is to where you need it to be. With a special emphasis on digital branding, this presentation will guide you to create a rebranding plan that’s aligned with who you are and how you want to deliver value to those around you.

You will learn how to:

Assess your current branding and identify brand aspirations

Evaluate and select the right branding tools that will reach your target audience and accelerate your re-branding initiative

Use social media and especially LinkedIn as a tool for authentic and rapid re-branding

Use the “Being Lazy” branding technique that will save you time while enhancing your visibility and credibility with decision-makers

How to Fill Your Experience Gaps

What happens when you complete the MBA and then find out you’re still missing some key ingredient for the next career move? Changes are always tough, but definitely feasible, even in tricky economic situations. From a base of solid self-assessment, the program will describe non-traditional “bridges” to fill in experience gaps and add significant real world skills. Or, in other words, what happens when you find out that the expensive, time-consuming MBA is not quite enough to get you moving in a new direction? How to fill the gap?

Learn a goal-setting system that works backward from your most aspirational career picture to the crux of your career motivation; then zoom in on the career steps that will get you off in the right direction on the right foot.

Whether you just left the workforce to complete a full-time MBA or you’re doing the MBA on top of a full-time job, your investment in your graduate business degree is a career marker. Given the global demand for business leadership talent, just imagine what’s next for you. In this one-hour power conversation on goals, join Patty Buchek as she shares her insights into the MBA career lattice and key decisions you can make that will maximize your time-delimited MBA experience. Consider a goals system that works backward from your most aspirational career picture to the crux of your career motivation; then zoom in on the career steps that will get you off in the right direction on the right foot.

You will learn:

That grand-scheme thinking makes all the difference.

That you can plot a course from here to there using the career lattice technique.

That you can be strategic, rather than frantic as you progress toward the best, right job for you.

Create a Bullet-Proof Brand Employers Will Value

This presentation guides you through questions to find out how to get clear on your personal value proposition, and create the "brand essence" that defines your contribution.

In business, the hardest thing to market is always yourself.This presentation guides you through questions to find out how to get clear on your personal value proposition, and create the "brand essence" that defines your contribution.

You will learn:

Differentiation strategies for your career, so that you can maximize the value of your business degree.

A process for getting clear on your individual story - what makes you unique, and why employers would want that.

Creating your personal value proposition in a way that's authentic, clear and natural.

Chris is the national elevator pitch champion, and the author of The NEW Elevator Pitch and BulletProof Branding. His strategies have created multi-million dollar revenue streams across a wide array of industries around the globe. With clients on four continents, he has appeared on CNN, ABC-NEWS, NBC-TV, and in The New York Post. Focused on helping entrepreneurs succeed, he’s coached companies on Shark Tank and Dragon’s Den. Fortune 100 Clients include Cisco, RE/MAX, Unilever, Experian, HP, and businesses of all shapes and sizes. An award-winning MBA instructor at a top-10 business school, he is widely recognized as an expert on marketing, branding and leadership – with an international executive coaching clientele. His keynote, Bullet Proof Branding, helps companies to create a story that’s captivating and concise – leading to new revenues, new partnerships, and new investments.

Patty Buchek

Assistant Dean, MBA Career Curricula of the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business. Patty worked for over 20 years as Master Recruiter, Trainer and Human Resource Manager, leading recruiting for major employers. At Georgetown, Patty leads the executive career development teams that support Executive MBA programs in US and global formats. She provides 1-on-1 coaching, delivers seminars, facilitates networking events and provides partnership with executive search firms. Patty also sets the strategy for career courseware across MBA programs, which provides structure to career changers from entry level to senior level.

Michelle Lederman

Author of The 11 Laws of Likability and Heroes Get Hired, keynote speaker, executive coach, and founder of Executive Essentials, a training company that provides communications and leadership programs, as well as executive coaching services. Michelle was an Adjunct Professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business and served on the faculty of the American Management Association. Michelle has appeared on a multitude of TV and radio shows across the country including CBS Money Watch, Fox 5’s Good Day NY, and over 100 radio shows such as; Gayle King, NPR, Martha Stewart Living, and The John Tesh Show. She has been quoted in the New York Times, The Star Ledger, Working Mother and Real Simple magazines, US News & World Report, on MSNBC, and Monster.com among others. Her book, articles, quizzes and videos have been featured on USA Today, AOL, Forbes, CNBC, and About.com. Michelle spent ten years in finance beginning her career as a Certified Public Accountant in Arthur Andersen’s audit practice, later joining Primedia as a mergers & acquisitions analyst. Her experience ranges from venture capital to hedge funds and includes positions as a financial strategist with Deloitte Consulting, a hedge fund investment adviser for HypoVereins Bank, and a director of communications at Investor Analytics, an alternative asset risk management firm.
Michelle is involved in extensive volunteer and community advocacy. She received her MBA, with honors, from Columbia Business School, and her coaching certification from the Institute for Professional Empowerment Coaching and is accredited by the International Coaching Federation.

The Art of Networking Part 2: Strengthening Connections for Professional Results

There are a variety of powerful approaches for increasing your contact with and the value you provide to your network. Learn tips and tactics that will help you convert your conversations into stronger and long-lasting connections.

Have you ever had a conversation you wanted to follow up on but didn’t?
Do you find yourself wishing you had a reason to get in touch with a colleague, customer, or oldacquaintance? Follow-up is the foundation for building a thriving network.

At the end of the day it is the strength of your relationships that leads to your success.
Yet often we are too busy to focus on building and nurturing our relationships. Some of us may find follow-up awkward, uncomfortable, or even unwanted. Thus we find it difficult to move from one conversation to the next, to build upon the initial contact and turn it into a real relationship.
And even if you do this with ease, there are a variety of powerful approaches for increasing your contact with and the value you provide to your network.

During this talk, The 11 Laws of Likability’sauthor, Michelle Tillis Lederman will take you through tips and tactics that will help you convert your conversations into stronger and long-lasting connections.

What You Will Learn:

Learn how to move from first conversation to lasting connection.

Leverage technology and social media in simple ways to increase familiarity.

Discover specific ways to increase your value to your network.

Understand the power of patience.

Understand how to ask for something to increase your results.

Viveka von Rosen

Viveka is known internationally as the “LinkedIn Networking Expert.” Author of “LinkedIn Marketing: An Hour A Day” for John Wiley & Sons, she is also a regular source on LinkedIn for prestigious news outlets such as Forbes, Money Magazine, Mashable.com, Ragan.com, SocialMediaExaminer.com, CNN and The Miami Herald. Viveka is the host of the biggest LinkedIn chat on Twitter: #LinkedInChat (Recently quoted by Mashable as one of the top 10 business blogs) and co-moderator of LinkedStrategies, the largest LinkedIn strategy group on LinkedIn. She is constantly learning, sharing and transferring social media skills and strategies to her tribe. She has over 29,000 first level connections and a network of over 31 million people on LinkedIn, and 52,000+ followers on Twitter. Her seminars, webinars and workshops have taught and trained well over 100,000 people. For the past three years, Viveka has been named by Forbes as one of the 20 Most Influential Women in Social Media.

LinkedIn Networking: Connect Before You Need to Ask for Favors

LinkedIn is really keeping me busy with all its new changes! And that’s all I do for a living. So how can you expect to stay on top of those changes and while creating new career opportunities, supporting your family and sleeping? You can’t. Which is why I’ve created this presentation to cover how both the new and traditional features of LinkedIn can be used to find, connect and engage with the individuals who can help you through the next phase of your life.

You don’t go to an interview in your pajamas (I hope). Similarly, you want to make sure you make a good impression on LinkedIn. We’ll take a quick look at some simple strategies to make sure your LinkedIn presence is stellar.

We’ll also look at the benefits of creating a proactive network by using LinkedIn’s People You May Know, Who’s Viewed Your Profile and Company Page features. Connect with people BEFORE you need to ask favors of them.

Finally, we’ll take a deep dive into The Alumni/University Pages - an excellent way to stay connected or reconnect to alumni who can help you get a job, and get you past the gatekeepers. As well as some best practices for reaching out and engaging with these prospects.

We are learning more and more that it is who you know (That can help you get a job, change careers, bring you business) Fortunately, you can use LinkedIn not only to discover who you know, but create new powerful relationships as well.

Jodi Glickman

Jodi is an expert in training young people how to be Great on the Job. Jodi is an entrepreneur, author, public speaker, consultant and regular blogger for Harvard Business Review. She is a faculty member of the Johnson School’s Leadership Program at Cornell and a contributor to Fortune.Com and Business Insider. Her new book: Great on the Job, What to Say, How to Say It, The Secrets of Getting Ahead has been described as a veritable master class in workplace success. Jodi has trained some of the best and brightest young minds in business—her clients include Harvard Business School, Wharton, NYU Stern School of Business, Kellogg School of Management, BofA/Merrill, Citigroup, Baird & Co., The Forte Foundation, and 85 Broads, among others. Jodi has appeared on MSNBC and her career advice has been featured in the New York Times, USA Today, Business Week, WSJ finance, CNN Money, Woman’s Day, Real Simple Magazine, MSN Careers, Yahoo! and Career Builder.com.

Perfect Your “Elevator” Personal Pitch

How do you make people love you when you’re looking for a job, trying to get a raise or promotion, or trying to build your business? This 60-minute interactive presentation will help you whip your elevator pitch into shape.

Author of Great on the Job and communications expert, Jodi Glickman, developed this presentation in conjunction with Harvard Business School and the Forte Foundation. She provides concrete, actionable communications strategies to help you tell a powerful and compelling story about who you are and what you want to do next with your career (destination); why you are uniquely qualified for a specific role (back story); and how your goals and background align to make perfect sense (connecting the dots). Once you learn these communications techniques to connect quickly, the people you “pitch” will ask you to tell them more.

Professional Presentations: Get Past the Dread and Build Your Brand

On every list of the most important skills required for organizational success, presentations is almost always in the top three. Unfortunately, the same is true for every list of most common fears, as well. This program will cover the most important aspects of how to prepare a successful presentation – audience analysis, design, and delivery techniques.

You will learn to:

How to get past the fear.

How to read your audience and adjust your presentation accordingly;

How to put the presentation together WITHOUT scripting; and

MHow to deliver your points in a diverse and compelling fashion.

Phil Vassallo

Philip has developed, delivered, and supervised communication training programs for a wide range of managerial, administrative, and technical professionals in corporate, government, and academic environments. He has also taught writing and presentation skills on the graduate and undergraduate university levels, most recently for the Beijing International MBA program at Peking University. He has provided writing coaching and assessment services for thousands of corporate employees. Dr. Vassallo is the author of the popular blog Words on the Line and the books How to Write Fast Under Pressure, on writing efficiently; The Art of On-the-Job Writingm, on work-related writing;The Art of E-Mail Writing, on business email. He holds a doctorate in educational theory from Rutgers University and is a past- president of the New Jersey College English Association.

Mike Vardy

Mike Vardy is a writer, speaker, and Founder and President of Productivityist. Mike’s work has appeared in the pages of SUCCESS Magazine, and online at The Huffington Post, Lifehacker, 99u, and many more. Before founding Productivityist, he served as Managing Editor of the popular productivity blog Lifehack, and as an editor at The Next Web and WorkAwesome. He is the author of The Front Nine: How to Start the Year You Want Anytime You Want, published by Diversion Books, and has also released two self-published works, The Productivityist Workbook, and Beyond Trying.

Productivity Part 1: How to Get More Time on Your Side

Time is our most valuable non-renewable resource; once it is spent it is gone. In order to get the most out every day, you need to invest your time wisely. In this presentation, the concepts of how to get more time on your side will be revealed. Managing your time isn’t just about keeping an eye on the clock or the calendar. There’s a lot more to it than that, and if you don’t understand the correlation between the time you have on hand and the accomplishments you’d like to achieve then you will have a much harder time realizing what you ultimately want to have in work and in life.

You will learn:

Why energy management is a key component to getting more out of every day

How to make your calendar as a guide rather than a ruling regime

Why routine is so critical to leveraging the time you have in a day – and beyond.

Productivity Part 2: How to Managed Tasks to Get More Done Daily

This presentation will focus on tactics, tips, and tricks that you can use to manage your tasks in a way that plays to your strengths. Task management is one of the building blocks of overall productivity, and by learning how to attack your to do list with multiple avenues at your disposal – by project, by mode, or by priority – you’ll be able to boost your effectiveness at what you do and the speed at which you do it over time. In this session you will learn a simple, flexible, and durable approach to you to do list that will allow you to deal with what you need to deal with, decide on what you ought (and ought not) to do, and ultimately do more of what you want to do every single day.

You will learn:

Why working by mode is a far more effective way to work than by project or action

How to prioritize in a way that doesn’t handcuff you or overwhelm you in the process

How to capture the ideas and thoughts in your head so that they become actionable in a more effective and efficient way

Productivity Part 3: How to Manage Information Effectively

We live in a world where we are bombarded with information constantly. The noise from our various information inputs (email inboxes, social media platforms, instant messages, etc.) is getting louder and louder and our ability to filter the noise out is getting more challenging. In this presentation, you will learn how to segment out your inputs in a way that allows you to deal with your own agenda first and deal with any and all information that comes your way in an effective and efficient manner. Whether you are facing email inbox overwhelm or any manner of information overload, this session will teach you how to process all of your inputs so that you can deliver quality output time and time again.

You will learn:

How to set up your email in a way that works for you rather than disrupts you

How to set boundaries for dealing with information from any and all sources (digital and analog)

How to capture information in a more sensible and searchable manner so that you know where your ‘stuff’ is regardless of what it is

The Art of Networking Part 1: 10 Keys to Making Connections

Yes, as business professionals, we know it’s “who you know” that is the key to accelerating career growth. Learn what it takes to get to know people you need to know.

Yes, as business professionals, we know it’s “who you know” that is the key to accelerating career growth. So, what does it take to get to know people you need to know? What is the How-To to the Who's?

It begins with a discipline in our weekly activities to create a "relationship equity" asset we then use in all aspects of our current and future career. It takes a Lifetime Career Management™ mindset and regular practice of noting where our interests and fascinations lie and then locating and climbing into the consciousness of thought leaders and experts in those areas. With this muscle in place, there's nowhere we can't go nor anyone we can't get known by.

You will learn:

How to eliminate habits that restrict your connectivity.

How to use the power of research-based relationship development.

How to discover ways to penetrate the doors and hearts of thought leaders and experts.

The 10 time-tested keys to building and sustaining your professional network.